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| 1301 Corcoran Street, NW |
Many passersby
notice elegant brass plaques mounted on Washington’s numerous historic
buildings, but one on the house at 1301 Corcoran Street, NW that simply reads
“Zalmon Richards House” certainly tends to arouse curiosity. Just who was this man with the odd first
name, and why was he important?
Some quick research
reveals that Richards (1811-1899) was a leader in both local and national
public and private education, and one of the founders of the National
Education Association and the Young
Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). He
and his second wife lived at 1301 Corcoran Street from 1882 until his death in
1899. Her family members, on the other
hand, were chiefly responsible for the infamous Salem witch trials!
Research does not
reveal the origin of his rather unusual first name, however. It is curious to note that he signed his name
only with a Z, and was known to have “vials of wrath if one called him ‘Zed.’”
(Allen C. Clark, Records of the Columbia Historical Society, vol. 42/43, p.
145) His brother was seemingly equally
cursed, having been named Almarin; He served as a principal of the old Prescott
High School on 8th Street, between K & L Streets, NW., and
served as a Superintendent of Police from 1864 to 1878.
Zalmon Richards had been born on a farm in Cummington, Massachusetts
on August 11, 1811, the son of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Packard) Richards. He attended the Cummington Academy and the
Southampton Academy to prepare for his entry into Williams College in
1832. His tuition was paid for by
private teaching and small loans that he repaid after his graduation in
1836. He also pledged himself to abstain
from alcoholic beverages when he joined the Baptist church just prior to his
undergraduate work.
Richards returned to his alma mater to become the principal
of the Cummington Academy after receiving a MA about 1838. The following year, he married his assistant
teacher, Minerva A. Todd, and they moved to teach at the Stillwater Academy in
New York.
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| Zalmon Richards photo by Mathew Brady |
Richards became principal of the preparatory school for
Columbian College in Washington beginning December 1, 1848. The school was established for students wishing to enter Columbian College (now
The George Washington University) and was then located at 14th and N
Streets. Built of brick in 1822, it
measured 25 by 30 feet and housed about 17 students. It had a checkered past, due to the fact that
during its first 26 years in existence, from 1822-1848, it had no less than 17
principals. Zalmon served as its
Principal until 1851.
In the 1850’s, the
termination of the school year in Washington was marked by examinations,
followed by public presentation of prizes.
In 1851, a parade of two thousand students marched through the streets
of Washington, joined by the Marine Corps Band, Mayor Walter Lenox, and
trustees of the public schools, who were all greeted by thousands of
spectators. Richards then addressed the
crowds.
Richards and his
wife purchased a 43’ x 103’ vacant lot the northwest corner of New York Avenue
and 14th Street on September 12, 1851, and opened the Union Academy
the following year. Richards attended
the preliminary organizational meeting of the Young Men’s Christian Association
(YMCA) on June 9, 1852 at the Masonic Hall.
He served as the organizations first President, beginning later that
month. The YMCA first occupied the
buildings at 437-441 7th Street, NW.
Apparently, Richards enjoyed becoming intimately involved in
new organizations that he had a passion for; he attended the organization
meeting of the National Teachers Association on August 26, 1857, and was
elected as its first president as well.
It later became the National Education Association. Among its founding
members, at least one-fourth were faculty members or administrators from
institutions of higher learning, including John Seeley Hart of Princeton,
Calvin Pease of the University of Vermont, and James R. Challen of Northwestern
University.
Earlier, on June 3,
1861, Richards had been sworn in as a Union supporter to the city’s Common
Council, representing the Second Ward.
His brother Almarin was elected from the Third Ward. The election meeting had not gone smoothly,
however, as the Star reported in its
May 29, 1861 edition:
“The meeting finally
adjourned with an indefinite amount of blowing, and in going out somebody’s
fist accidentally got into another body’s face whereupon half a dozen pitched
into everybody in general and no one in particular, the only object appearing
to be a desire to let some one fight out.
Heads went down and heels flew up; benches rolled up among themselves in
a hurry, and several serious collisions occurred at the door between those
getting out and others getting in.”
A true renaissance
man, on July 4, 1864, Richards even witnessed the signing of a dedicatory hymn
he had composed for the opening of the Wallach School. In 1871, he attempted a partnership with
Henry R. Miles to manufacturer paper files and carpet stretchers on the Academy
grounds that failed the following year.
The Academy itself was foreclosed upon in August of 1877, and the
Richard’s moved into the Rugby Hotel.
Richards’s wife
Minerva died in the afternoon of July 15, 1873.
Richards married his second wife, Mary Frances Mather, on August 19,
1874, just thirteen months after the death of his first wife. Mary had been born in Darien, Connecticut on
November 5, 1835. She was twenty-four
years his junior (he was 63 she then 39).
Mary was a direct, lineal descendant of the famous Rev. Cotton Mather
(1663-1728), a Puritan Minister at Boston’s Old North Church and chief cause
and promoter of the Salem witch trials. Following
the wedding in Darien, they resided on the Academy grounds at 1401 New York
Avenue, NW.
They moved into 1301
Corcoran Street in 1882, and resided there until her death in 1896, and his
death there at 4:15 am on November 1, 1899.
He is interred in a family plot in Oak Hill Cemetery next to his two
wives.
The Zalmon Richards
house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 as an
individual landmark, long before the surrounding neighborhood was considered
for historic district status.
Copyright Paul K. Williams